This week's wildlifing

Between working and going to the allotment I did a little bit of birding and mothing etc this week. Tuesday was spent sat by the River Trent in some blazing sunshine, not really wildlife watching per se but I did get some nice photos of Banded Demoiselles. These and the blue damselflies are the only Odonata I've seen this year, with no dragons to speak of as yet. I have countless photos of these lovely Demoiselles, but I just cannot resist taking more.

On Tuesday evening the weather stayed very warm through the night with temperatures nearly at 20 degrees at ten o'clock when I was cycling home from work. With no wind and a 'muggy' feel it seemed like perfect moth trapping weather so I called my friend and asked him to put the trap on in his garden for me. Its only the 3rd time I've run it this year. I cycled round at 8 the next morning to inspect the catch. I lost 4 or 5 escapees but managed to ID 5 species in the trap which believe it or not is a record for me. The third Light Brown apple moth of the year was the first to come out, followed by a Heart and Dart, a lovely Figure of 80 and a White-shouldered House Moth. One particular species caused me some trouble as it didn't have many distinguishing features but I believe it was a Turnip Moth.

Heart and Dart

Turnip

Figure of 80

Wednesday was spent with the wildlife trust, pulling up balsam in clifton wood, which gives me the chance to squeeze in a bit of birding too. Typical woodland birds were in abundance, including singing Coal Tits, Nuthatch and Goldcrests. While walking through the larch plantation, a Buzzard flew through over our heads and several Jays and  Green and Great Spotted woodpeckers were about. Warblers were in abundance too with many Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs holding territories through the wood.

While having lunch on Foxcovert Lane, there were Whitethroats singing constantly and a Common Toad slowly made its way past us, allowing some photos to be taken.

In the afternoon I went to Holme Pit to see if any dragonflies were about yet but had no joy, but there were lots of Reed Warblers about and even a few Sedgies. a single Common Tern was present too but soon disappeared.

Reed Warbler

Sedgie

I took the opportunity to do my butterfly survey up on the grove as it was pretty hot and there was barely any wind. It was a little disappointing, with only 3 species noted, totalling about 30 butterflies. Still no Skippers, and the lack of diversity was quite worrying really. Hopefully things will pick up in the coming weeks. I did manage to find my first Silver-Y moth of the year though, which was a nice bonus.

Silver-Y

Weather for next week looks good for butterflies so I'll be heading up to clifton at some point, and i'm planning on running the moth trap several times so fingers crossed for a good few days.